a. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to a system and apparatus for capturing high quality digital images of models and other subjects and to display the images concurrently on a plurality of large screens. Optionally, the images are stored and/or printed.
b. Description of the Prior Art
Photo booths have been with us since the 50's and they are used to make wallet sized pictures using wet chemistry. The pictures produced are very low quality but the devices are somewhat popular because they provide almost instantaneous results.
More recent apparatus have been proposed that produce somewhat better results. See for instance U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,815 disclosing a modular photographic system, U.S. Patent Publication 20010011262 disclosing a digital public photo booth capable of sending a digital image to a remote location; Japanese Patent Publication JP 2001311993A2 which discloses a photo booth that takes a picture of a subject and superimposes a selected background on the resulting image; U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,581 discloses takes an image of a subject, defocuses the background and superimposes a selected image as background; U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,197 discloses a photo booth generating pictures by printing images from a video camera; EP Application 1059799 discloses a digital photo booth with a video camera generating images of a subject, a monitor for displaying the images and a printer for making pictures from the images; U.S Pat. No. 3,852,783 discloses an electronic photo studio with strobe lights a camera exposing images on a film and a processing device for developing the exposed film; U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,515 discloses a photo booth with a movable camera and a movable background.
However, all these devices are constructed and designed as a unitary permanent or semi-permanent structure placed usually in a high volume area. Moreover, the quality of images and pictures obtained from these devices are not very high.